<p>I agree whole-heartly with jcas…I think the fact that jcas is dating a Hotelie has made him understand the program a little bit better.</p>
<p>I think you can’t really say Hotel is better than AEM or vice versa. The school’s success is based on how well you do at the School and the opportunity you take at the school. So I disagree with ajp when he stated “taking the required culinary courses and courses strictly about hotels and hotel management are going to prepare you better than ACTUAL business courses in AEM? give me a break.” The Hotel School offers very advance real estate finance classes as well as independent studies. Hotel students also can take AEM classes (and vice versa.)</p>
<p>Furthermore, Hotel students do have plenty investment and banking recruitment events. As you can see from the career day list ([Career</a> Day](<a href=“http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/students/careers/ugrad/careerday.html]Career”>http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/students/careers/ugrad/careerday.html),) many of these companies are more finance/real estate related than operations related.</p>
<p>the Hotel School is almost completely funded by alum donation. Somehow Hotel Alum have this dedication towards the School. For example, I had to contact alum for a communication project. All my contacts replied to me within a day–I was very impressed. Like people have mentioned before, Cornell School pays their professor better–and their professors are much more likely to be teachers than researchers (confirmed by one of my professors, he turned down a position in AEM because it paid 1/3 less than Hotel School.) </p>
<p>Hotel School is also like high school—where everyone is obsessed with Hotels (or most people.) If you are not, you may feel a bit left out. So, bottom line, don’t apply to Hotel if you don’t like it.</p>
<p>Okay, I am going to be unbiased here. I am not going to say Hotel or AEM is better. I was actually looking at both programs when I applied and here is what I have observed after attending here for a while:</p>
<p>Hotel:
*advantage- Networking, active alum, reputation (not within cornell but in the industry), charismatic people, amazing professors</p>
<p>*disadvantage- kinda like high school–if you don’t like Hotel, you may be an outsider. Trust me, the students can sniff if you don’t like the Hotel Classes. and HA 105 and 106 as well as culinary will kill you (imagine memorizing specific trends about the Hotel industry and about cooking temperature if you don’t like it.)</p>
<p>AEM
*Advantage: cheaper for in-state, not as many required credits (my friends in AEM has much more freedom because again, Hotel school is like high school, they preenroll you for the first two years,) more related to banking (less excessive classes.)</p>
<p>*Disadvantages: I hear some professor are more interested in research. The Hotel School teaches you how to be professional (in HA 165 and 174.) I had to work with an AEM kid once on a project, he was impressed by how professional I can present myself. Hotel School has more networking opportunities (since the business industry is all about people skills and networking…unless you are happy with an entry level analyst job.)</p>
<p>Good luck on your decision. I tried to present both good and bad from both programs. Either (both) programs are great. If you do well, you will excel no matter what you chose.</p>